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Scottish Premiership
| confed = UEFA | founded = 2013 | folded = | divisions = | teams = 12 | feeds = | promotion = | relegation = Scottish Championship | nationalitylevel = | levels = 1 | domest_cup = Scottish Cup, Scottish League Cup | confed_cup = UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League | champions = Celtic (6th title) | season = 2018-19 | most_successful_club = Celtic (6) | tv = Sky Sports BT Sport BBC Scotland | current = 2018–19 | website = http://spfl.co.uk/premiership/ }} The Scottish Premiership, known for sponsorship reasons as the Ladbrokes Premiership, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish Premiership was established in July 2013, after the Scottish Professional Football League was formed by a merger of the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League. Competition format Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then goal difference, and then goals scored. At the end of each season, the club with the most points is crowned league champion. If points are equal, the goal difference and then goals scored determine the winner. Split The top flight of Scottish football has contained 12 clubs since the 2000–01 season, the longest period without change in the history of the Scottish football league system. During this period the SPL and now the SPFL have operated a "split" format. This is done to prevent the need for a 44-game schedule, based on playing each other four times. That format was used in the Scottish Premier Division, but is now considered to be too high a number of games in a league season. A season, which runs from August until May, is divided into two phases. During the first phase, each club plays three games against every other team, either once at home and twice away or vice versa. After this first phase of matches, by which time all clubs have played 33 games, the league splits into a 'top six' and a 'bottom six'. Each club then plays a further five matches, one against each of the other five teams in their own section. Points achieved during the first phase of 33 matches are carried forward to the second phase, but the teams compete only within their own sections during the second phase. After the first phase is completed, clubs cannot move out of their own section in the league, even if they achieve more or fewer points than a higher or lower ranked team, respectively. At the beginning of each season, the SPFL 'predicts' the likely positions of each club in order to produce a fixture schedule that ensures the best possible chance of all clubs playing each other twice at home and twice away. This is known as the league seeding and is based on clubs' performance in previous years. If a club does not finish in the half where it is predicted to finish, it faces the possibility of playing an unequal number of home and away games. For example, one club sometimes plays another three times at home and once away. Promotion and relegation The bottom placed Premiership club at the end of the season is relegated, and swaps places with the winner of the Scottish Championship, provided that the winner satisfies Premiership entry criteria. With the creation of the SPFL, promotion and relegation play-offs involving the top flight were introduced for the first time in 17 years. That now means the Premiership club in 11th place face the Championship play-off winners over two legs. The winner of those play-offs will earn the right to play in the Scottish Premiership the following season along with the winners of the Scottish Championship. The Scottish Football League had used playoffs between its three divisions since 2007. European qualification Clubs finishing in the top positions of the Premiership will gain qualification to compete in one of UEFA's European competitions. UEFA grants European places to the Scottish Football Association, determined by the Scotland's position in the UEFA coefficients ranking system. The Scottish Football Association in turn allocate a number of these European places to final Scottish Premiership positions. Currently, the top placed team in the Scottish Premiership gains qualification to the UEFA Champions League qualifying round 2, whilst the second and third placed teams gain qualification to the UEFA Europa League at qualifying round 2 and qualifying round 1, respectively. Personnel and kits (2018–19) Stadiums :See also Scottish stadiums External links *Scottish Premiership – Official website Category:Scottish leagues Category:Scottish competitions Category:Competitions Category:Scottish Premiership Category:Leagues